Stories of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search & Rescue Team When wilderness injuries happen, volunteers are there to help By Connie Lewis
On January 21, 2007, the Korean Alpine Club of Utah sent climbers up snowy Mount Olympus—a 3,500-foot ascent from valley floor. During the climb, three club members fell on the ice and tumbled about 100 feet, requiring a rescue to get them off the mountain. Due to the peak's steep slopes, the only way to do it was sending a helicopter to the summit where six rescuers were dropped off and climbed down to stabilize the injured climbers. One climber had a suspected pelvic fracture; another was suffering from frostbitten toes. Unfortunately, the team couldn’t get them off the mountain before nightfall, and the rescuers had to spend the night with them in subzero temperatures. It wasn’t until morning that a Life Flight helicopter could reach the stranded team and extract the injured climbers while the rest climbed back down. This thrilling rescue is just one day in the life of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team. VOLUNTEER RESCUE WORKERS If you’ve ever wondered who would come to help you if you were injured in Utah's mountains, it would be Mike Loyd’s team of volunteers. Mike is the coordinator for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team—its only paid position—and the one who puts together a team of trained volunteers to rescue stranded hikers, injured skiers, and dehydrated adventurers. He’s most proud of the group;s record, “We’ve never had anyone die while we were with them. We have some national notoriety for that.” 16«
Late Winter 2020
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Mike works under the direction of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s office and coordinates about 35 volunteers to assist in searches and rescues. His volunteers are members of Mountain Rescue Association and must pass a test every three years to stay certified. In the winter, Mike also works in tandem with Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, a group connected to ski resorts, but independent from the Sheriff’s office. These rescue workers are made up mostly of onduty ski patrollers and assist in ski-related rescues. A RECENT RESCUE Mike’s team can gather quickly when the need arises to save lives in cases like the Mountain Olympus climbers, and more recently to rescue a teen in Millcreek Canyon. On January 2, 2020, a 17-yearold hiker from California set out on a 16-mile hike from Millcreek Canyon to Park City. He had family and friends in Salt Lake, but was not staying with them, and had planned to hike to Park City to join some friends for dinner. Though he’d packed plenty of food and water, he underestimated the time the hike would take, and its difficulty during the winter. The initial call reporting him missing mentioned that an Uber driver dropped the teen off in Lamb’s Canyon, but it was later learned the canyon was actually Millcreek—but the rescue still didn’t know exactly where. The report came in at 8:00 p.m. so, unfortunately, the search couldn’t start until the next morning.
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